Spur

Abstract

This dissertation, titled Spur, is structured in three major sections: a set of poems; a lyric essay in the form of an open letter; and a second set of poems. The work explores questions of shame, agency, and inheritance in the realm of the family. Spur’s post-confessional poems and lyric essay use the approaches of surrealism and the uncanny; a multigenerational, feminist lens; an unstable, first-person speaker; and the technique of looking inward to look outward in order to achieve self-examination, vulnerability, ambiguity, and, ultimately, a more nuanced understanding of abuse, addiction, trauma, and what comes after.